Ok here is the actual approach you can get a better sense of the hole. This might be my favorite laid out hole that I play frequently. If I hit a good drive I have a decision to make. Laying up seems like an obvious decision but even laying up isn't that straight forward. If you decide to lay up getting inside 100 yards is pretty tough given the water and the 1 random lonely tree about 50 yards short right of the green. That "large area short right of the waters edge (highlighted) actually can leave you with 150+ yards if you are near the cart path, oh and the left side of the FW is surprisingly firm and its also slanted left I've seen numerous balls bounce hard left into the lake (ie don't hit a draw into the left half of the layup zone).

So the dot in the FW is about 280-290 from the tees I normally play.

Sorry for my postings on this. I just really like the hole and the decision it forces me to make when I do hit a good tee shot.

Squeezed out an 83 yesterday. It was kind of dramatic. I started by making three doubles in the first five holes. On the fifth I hit the worst no-feel pitch shot clear over the green, it ricocheted off the chainlink, I felt so stupid. Not just for that shot but for coming out here in the first place, for ever thinking I could play a decent round and whatnot.

On the next hole hit a good 3-iron off the tee and was like hey man, good swing--don't be such a douche. Then made a longish putt for par and that cheered me up. Never really felt all that great all day but managed to get a hold of myself and play the remaining thirteen in +6. Some good up and downs, decent putting and a couple of mashed drives. Also a couple of boneheaded mental errors that hopefully I can learn from.

The course is in very fine shape for this time of year. Long as the weather holds up I am going to continue to make golf great again.

That sounds like fun. I would love to do a shamble with one of my buddies - we're both around 7-8 handicaps - he's a great driver of the ball and I'm pretty good 150 yards and in. Think we'd make a great team.

A second straight 83 at Silver Lake. I made a triple and four doubles this time. Putting was a little off. I am still using the no-practice-stroke method and where it once felt liberating it might be feeling a little weird now. I also made two birdies and hit eight GIRs. Have never felt as in control of my golf swing as today. Jesus Christ.

The season is winding down. My home course closed Friday and I slopped around it with an 81. Today it has rained all day. Sort of a depressing situation, playing poorly while the courses close and the season peters out as a muddy, cold mess.

I didn't really strike the ball poorly. I just had 8 penalty strokes (2 penalties on 3 different holes). I have been good at plotting my way around courses w/o incurring penalties and this team play format really made me not play my game.

I had 2 birdies on the day, both were less than an inch from being eagles as my chips hit the lip on both of them. I also lipped out 2 more birdie putts and 1 par putt.

Here is a breakdown of the penalties and most are due to stupid mistakes I normally wouldn't make.

Hole 8 - My partner says "hit driver right over those trees you'll be fine." I've never played the course and its a blind shot. 315 yard par 4. I hit he says "perfect." I get up around 250-260 yards out to see the fairway narrows to 15 yards and is massively slanted towards the water. Oh there's my ball in the lake. I drop with the ball WAY below my feet and try to hit a 1/2 LW and shank it right into the lake.

11 or 12? - I get to the tee box of the par 3. Realize I have too much club, try to hit a softer shot instead of going back to the cart. Opps dumb mistake. Go back to cart to grab another ball and the right club and hit it to 30'.

Hole 18 - shank 4i into the lake off the tee. Then after that I thinned a FW bunker shot off the lip into the lake.

Hole 4 - After my 5i carried WAY too far I'm on a down slope in the rough between clubs. I can try to murder a SW or hit a soft GW. I went with the latter as it's all over water. Fat, drop, fat, drop green.

Hole 5 - 179 to a back right pin down wind. At this point I'm going flag hunting. I hit a good 7i that carried the green by 12 yards and into the hazard behind the green. Stock 195 yard 7i.

I broke 80 at Dyker today. Temps in the mid 40s, steady 15-25mph winds. I am still stunned at the result. I think it is the best I have ever played.

I wasn't certain at the time but going to the last tee I had a feeling I was eight over par, which turned out to be right. I wanted to be sure of breaking 80, and it was getting cold and windier, and dark. The 18th tee shot at Dyker is one of the dicier shots on the course, nothing but trouble and OB on the right. There's also still leaves everywhere, and also I have a bus to catch in a few minutes. I decide that I don't need the stress of trying to blast a driver and then trying to find it so F this crap, I laid up with a 3-iron, aiming to reach the green (393y par 4) in three and hopefully two-putt and get out with a 79.

Fuckin' a right, it actually worked. Left about 5' for bogey though. Feels good man. It was a crazy round. I chipped in twice, one for birdie one for eagle. I was -3 after four holes. I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've ever been three under par at any point during a round. Jesus Christ! I had trouble thinking straight at that point. Shit got kind of rough in the middle but I stuck with my fundamentals and played pretty good down the stretch.

Thank you Matt. After reflecting on it some more last night, I realize it was verily the best round of golf I ever played by just about any criterion imaginable, besides score obviously.

Frankly I am a ball of mixed emotions. Feel somewhat proud and vindicated yet also feel kind of bitter and vindictive, and futile, like what's the point anyways. I used to think that if I ever were to figure out the golf swing, that I would use the knowledge to try and help others. Now am like, what's the god-damn point. Only those who really want it will ever get anywhere, and those people tend to find it themselves anyways. Not that there's anything wrong with that sort of paradigm. There are many areas in life where you sort of need someone to show you things. The golf swing I believe is not one of those areas. Golf is merely a game based on whacking a ball with a stick and for crying out loud there is so much footage, from all different angles, slow-motion etc of people doing it capably that. Turn on a TV or a youtube, watch what they are doing and figure out how to produce it yourself. Or, if you still crave instruction go to the internet where you can find all kinds of qualified instructors literally giving away their hard-earned insights for free, both on video and in written form. You want feedback, watch the ball after you hit it.

81. Esplanade Golf & Country Club at Lakewood Ranch, Bradenton, FL. Blue (Gold) tees. One of my favorite courses in the area.

Just okay play. Driver = B-. Irons = B. 29 putts, which included one 3-putt. Having trouble with making my normally confident flop shot swings off tight Bermuda lies. Different ballgame than I am used to. Now it's in my head. Flopped two different shots, half the distance I needed, adding at least one stroke to my score. Also shanked a pitch from 30 yards into a bunker resulting in only double. On the other hand had a couple short iron/wedge approach shots I hit stiff for tap-ins. One for bird.

89 at New Jersey's famed Ballyowen on Black Friday. Door to door this had to be the smoothest golf experience of my life. Found a nice-priced "deal time" online for which I scrounged up an additional 20% off coupon--two mid-day tee-times at a snooty course for less than a hundy. Bonus. Then, we encountered ZERO traffic on the way out of the city which by itself is mind-blowing, arrived at an empty course, no harassment from bag drop jockeys, etc. No golfers in front, none behind, for the entire 18 holes. When does that ever happen? Plus perfect sunny late fall weather, great course conditions and nice IPAs on draft. The only hitch during the whole thing the cart-path only; it's a very big lot on which to be playing cart-path only. Lots of running around carrying three, four, five clubs at a time. But hey, exercise. And finally there was no traffic whatsoever on the trip home which just about blew my mind again. It was like the rapture had happened while we were playing golf.

Gamewise I played respectable (by my shitty personal standards) on a new and challenging course. Feeling more brazen and douchey than usual I even took on the second to longest "gold" tees, around 6500y. On wet turf with all the elevation, that length played really long, I had to hit mostly drivers, and a lot of long approaches. Irons were a little scratchy but the driver was in unprecedented form. Ms Beef even noticed the swing improvement, she was like "you used to hit a lot of provisionals but today, you didn't hit any." It's true, I was well into the back nine before I even missed a fairway. Toward the end the sun was setting right into our faces, wind picked up, I had to go pee but there's not a single tree on the lot, then I started pulling em left off the tee, got caught up in some fescue and went double-triple-triple to blow up my score. That's okay, it's just a score. What's really important is that people got to enjoy themselves for once without getting snagged in the usual bullshit of everyday life/golf.

So finished up my Florida trip to see the family for Thanksgiving. Only played three rounds while there. Was only there 7 days and one was Thanksgiving Day, so don't feel too bad about only 3 rounds. Shot 85, 81, 79. Got beat up by the Bermuda grass. It got in my head. (Hell, it was in my head before I got there.) Hit a bunch of poor shots over the course of those three rounds as a result. The first two courses were nice, with average slope ratings. The 79 was on an easy course (117 slope rating) nearly flat as a pancake. I played with my wife and spent the round helping her. (Her first round in a year.) Didn't pay a lot of attention to my own game. I should have been able to tear that place up. So the 79 looks better than it actually is.

Happy to be headed back to my home course again later today. Good ol' bentgrass fairways and greens, 50 degree temps outside, hills and valleys, with few level lies, 10 forced carries and a 137 slope. Oh yeah.

There was some bigtime golf on the TV today, but I decided to go out and watch myself play instead and you know what, it was a lot of fun. 7 pars and 11 bogeys for an 81 at Silver Lake. At last I had a round with no doubles or worse, been a while. Had a putt for par on all 18 holes, which is like, promising. Only lost sight of the ball once, ended up finding it. Decent control of the ball. Onward in my journey across the swing plane. I made some good swings today, some scrappy too; I learned some, reinforced some. Feels good motherfucker.

"Played" 4 holes this morning. Well I was a little short on time so I tried to play in 30 min. I was jogging between shots, heart was racing.

Also as stated before I was trying to make my tee shots as hard as possible given where my next tournament was.

Basically I was aiming down the wrong side of the hole and trying to hold the ball against the wind 2/3 of the time. It resulted in 2 balls in the woods punching out, and one blocked right of where i wanted but I did hit the "real" FW. Just missed my fake "hard" FW by about 20 yards.

I was happy with my 1st drive. I piped it right where I wanted I just got it up above the trees and the wind took it into the woods. I mean cold 1st swing I absolutely crushed it. It was a good feeling until I saw it peak above the trees and that 20mph wind knock it over into "death" (right trees on hole 1).

Friday, 79 from blue tees in 50 degree temps. Today, Saturday, 79 from blue tees in 45 degree temps. Playing some pretty good golf and making some pretty good swings. Of course, none of these scores count. Out of season. But still satisfying just the same.

Hell yeah motherfucker!!! Sorry for the expletives, just trying in vain to stir up some excitement up in here.

I am assuming that late-season course conditions are unusually good down there like they are here. Who knows what deep winter is going to be like but right now, I am looking forward to it, to winter golf!!1 At least we are getting a nice start in terms of turf conditions. It's still so green here.